Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

The rare third film in a comedy series that’s just as sharp as its predecessors, “Barbershop: The Next Cut” also provides welcome proof that Ice Cube can still be funny and charming in a PG-13 movie, a matter on which the two “Ride Along” efforts cast serious doubt.

Back after a 12-year absence, Malcolm D. Lee’s film finds Cube’s Calvin and lovable dinosaur Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer, fantastic yet again in his signature role) still cutting heads on Chicago’s South Side.

Joining them for round three are newcomers Rashad (Common) — husband to Terri (Eve), formerly the shop’s lone woman barber who’s now a stylist for celebrities — foppish Jerrod (Lamorne Morris) and Raja (Utkarsh Ambudkar), the Republican son of Indian immigrants.

Occasionally at his chair and bringing in the most clients is One-Stop (J.B. Smoove), who lives up to his name by offering various health and lifestyle services — pretty much anything with the exception of lowering ears. Rounding out the room is Calvin’s business partner Angie (Regina Hall), new-age hippie Bree (Margot Bingham) and wild card eye candy Draya (Nicki Minaj).

Similar to the series’ past installments — and perhaps to a greater extent here, with the more balanced male/female ratio — the cornerstone of “Barbershop: The Next Cut” is placing such disparate personalities in the same room and letting them riff on a range of subjects.

Co-written by “Black-ish” creator Kenya Barris, the script is sophisticated but fun and the dialogue topical yet quippy. Most of the verbal sparring sounds natural and is all the more hilarious for it, and the same goes for tangents involving the new culinary business of former barber J.D. (Anthony Anderson) and Rashad’s personal drama, allowing the notoriously stiff Common to loosen up and display the kind of charisma typically present in his music.

Several scenes, however, have a checklist feeling of making sure everyone is given the opportunity to chime in on a particular theme with a suspiciously well-rehearsed speech, especially discussions of Chicago’s horrific murder rate, an otherwise reasonable rationale for the film’s existence.

More often than not, the central conflict remains grounded with Calvin and his wife Jennifer (Jazsmin Lewis), concerned that their son Jalen (Michael Rainey Jr.) may be involved with a gang, and the shop employees worried that the city’s extremist plan for curtailing crime will mark the end of the already economically anemic neighborhood — both of which inspire poignant concerted responses.

At times resembling a more family-friendly “Chi-raq,” “Barbershop: The Next Cut” might be a little watered down overall and hokey in spurts, but effectively gets its timely points across. Like the shop’s experimental tactics in curbing gun violence, this difficult issue requires multiple approaches from multiple voices, and the more films that address it on their own terms, the greater the chance for real social change.